Buffy ended on it's own terms, AFAIK. The show did ALMOST get cancelled in season 6, so that might have let them know that their time was finite. Joss Whedon says that he felt the show had run it's course and he says that when he went to tell Sarah Michelle Gellar, she basically said she was ready to move on at almost the exact same time. Remember, Gellar was starting to get movie roles...like the crappy Scooby Doo movie, and so probably had unrealistic ideas about how big she'd gotten.

Charmed was killed because it also had run it's course and had experienced declining quality for years before it's cancellation. Some would argue it never had much quality and was a weak Buffy ripoff. I would be one of those people. Of course the stars promptly got bitter and complained that it was sexism...which is dumb. If it's sexism, why would they have ever supported the show in the first place? No one has accused Alyssa Milano of having a brain.

Star Trek the original just didn't have good ratings. The better question is why it lasted as long as it did. Star Trek didn't get popular until years later when the show went into syndication. In syndication, it became a cult classic, and that surge in popularity made the Star Trek: The Motion Picture possible.

Star Trek Voyager ended because it was f-ing garbage and someone finally came to their senses. Okay, that's not really the story. Again, the writers actually wrapped it up story wise. The show wasn't abruptly cancelled, they told the story they wanted to tell and ended the show when they were done. Maybe they saw writing on the wall of future cancellation, I don't know.

Entropy2 weeks ago30

A couple of those were relatively successful. Scifi shows used to have a mostly niche audience and so they often were an odd fit into the broadcast networks which require mass audiences to keep them going.

Anonymous2 weeks ago00

Money. All of the shows you list lasted several seasons. And, as is typical, ratings started dropping after several years. And since the shows had been on for several years, and since the cast members were often unknowns when hired who became better known over the life of the show, they would typically be asking for money when their original contracts expired. So the shows brought in less advertising revenue at the same time that expenses were going up.

But, as is always the case, there are plenty of new shows that are waiting in the wings.

If you liked Buffy and Charmed, try Stranger Things, Locke and Key, iZombie, Lucifer, Supernatural, or The Magicians.

If you liked Star Trek, try The Expanse

Anonymous2 weeks ago10

Star Trek TOS: Bad scheduling. During the third season, they put it on Friday nights, when most of the viewership would be out of the house.

Star Trek TNG: It wasn't killed. It ended because the TNG cast was going to start doing movies.

Star Trek DS9: The story reached a natural stopping point after seven seasons.

Star Trek VOY: The story reached a natural stopping point after seven seasons.

Star Trek ENT: The ratings weren't good. It is believed that it was caused by Star Trek 'fatigue' where there had been so many Star Trek shows that people were tired of it and stopped watching.

As far as Buffy and Charmed, I'm not entirely sure why they were cancelled - I never had much interest so didn't watch.

Duck2 weeks ago00

that would be writer's strike in 1988. after that, tv switched to reality tv to save money and the industry just kind of went to ****!

Sandy2 weeks ago00

Ratings were declining, different genres started to become more popular so those became the thing most networks show.